


Come Back to Me (However Long it Takes)

by allstring



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Spoilers for Pacific Rim Uprising
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 14:43:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14215401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allstring/pseuds/allstring
Summary: Truth be told, Hermann felt like an awful friend; Newt had an incredibly successful new job and a committed partner, and all Hermann could feel was jealousy. Well, that and loneliness.





	Come Back to Me (However Long it Takes)

**Author's Note:**

> Hermann finally meets Alice. Obviously major spoilers for Pacific Rim Uprising! I forgot just how much I love these dorks, it's been a long time since the original Pacific Rim came out. Title inspired by Come Back to Me by Les Friction and However Long it Takes by Sent by Ravens.

Despite his considerable amount of apprehension, Hermann finally agreed to meet Alice. Though he and Newt had dropped to very low contact over the past ten years since (as Marshall Pentecost had so eloquently put it) the apocalypse was canceled, Hermann had garnered from the emails they shared that Newt was going steady.

And he should have been happy. He had never seen Newt as the kind of person to ever settle down, ever make a long-term commitment to something that wasn’t a Kaiju body part, but he seemed to have beaten the odds. Truth be told, Hermann felt like an awful friend; Newt had an incredibly successful new job and a committed partner, and all Hermann could feel was jealousy. Well, that and loneliness.

Which is why, when he saw Newt with the Shao escort, he bounded forward, forgetting the pain in his leg entirely.

“Newton!” he exclaimed, smiling fondly. “I had hoped you would be tagging along.” Newt flashed a harried smile back, waving to his boss to let her know everything was fine.

“Hermann! How you been, man?” Though it sounded like something Newt would say, the tone was off. He sounded busy and far-away, like Hermann was a distraction instead of a long-time colleague. As though they had never drifted.

Pushing down the anxiety rising in his throat, Hermann continued.

“I’ve been well. Mako runs a very tight ship, as you might guess, so everything is going smoothly. How is Shao Industries?” Newt flapped a hand, still not focusing his whole attention on the conversation at hand.

“Oh, great. Listen, Hermann, this isn’t the best time to have a conversation. How about dinner at my place sometime soon? You can finally meet Alice!” Though he couldn’t place the reason why, Herman’s heart sunk at Alice’s mention.

“Oh, certainly. We’ll be in touch. Now go, I’m sure Ms. Shao needs you.” Newt nodded, his eyes focusing for the briefest of seconds on Hermann’s face before he hurried off after his new employer.

\---

And so, just a few days later, Hermann found himself outside of Newt’s apartment door, best bow tie too tight around his neck, bottle of wine in hand. He took a moment to compose himself before knocking. _Remember, Gottlieb, you’re supposed to be happy for him._

When Newt did not respond after a few knocks, Hermann checked his watch. This was the right time, yes? Just as he was about to double-check the email, he heard a faint ‘come in’ from inside.

Hermann opened the door cautiously, uncertain if Newt was injured or if he had just woken up from a nap. It had sounded like a strange mix of the two. Newt was nowhere to be found in the living room or the kitchen, so he opened the nearest door, gasping when he saw the scene in Newt’s bedroom.

Though Newt had kept the rest of the apartment spotless, his former messy habits had bled into his bedroom. There were stacks of notes on the desk, boxes haphazardly placed on the floor, and a Kaiju brain floating in a tank, a neural headset attached to it. Scrawled on the outside of the tank in grease pencil was the name _Alice_.

Hermann tried to say something, but all that came out was a harsh breath. He was equal parts furious and terrified, but he focused his attention on freeing Newt. One step at a time.

He turned the headset off, throwing it across the room before sinking to his knees and cradling Newt’s head in his hands, checking for damage. His pupils were ragged, his eyes bloodshot, and he would be willing to wager that Newt had a pounding headache at the moment.

“How long?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Huh?” Newt asked, still stupefied from his drift.

“How long have you been drifting with a Kaiju brain you absolute moron?!” Hermann shouted, grabbing Newt’s shoulders. Newt shrugged, nonchalant.

“I dunno... How long has it been since I left the Shatterdome?” Hermann sighed angrily, getting to work unplugging the tank from the wall. Alice flailed in agony as its life support was cut off. “No no no!” Newt shouted, scrambling to his feet. Hermann held him back, wrapping his arms around Newt’s chest to hold him back.

“This is for your own good,” he said firmly. Newt swiveled around, shoving Hermann into the nearest wall and wrapping his hands around Hermann’s neck just as he had finished dialing Mako. The phone dropped to the ground, forgotten.

“ _You fool_ ,” he hissed, tightening his grip just enough to make breathing difficult. “ _Now he’ll go into withdrawal. He_ needs _to drift with us_.” Hermann had his hands on Newt’s, gently stroking them as he was being choked. Newt blinked, his gaze unfocusing and his grip loosening. “Herm, they’re... they’re in my head.”

“Who is?” Hermann asked, taking advantage of his newly-freed windpipe to ask a question.

“ _Take a wild guess, Dr. Gottlieb,_ ” the other voice said mockingly. “ _Apparently you’re one of the foremost experts on Kaiju. Surely you can guess what’s happening here._ ”

“The Precursors,” Hermann breathed, leaning down to retrieve his cane without breaking eye contact. “You used the Kaiju brain to break into Newt’s drift. That’s why...” he trailed off, the pieces of a puzzle ten years in the making finally snapping into place.

“ _He couldn’t help himself. One of your brightest minds, falling prey to a simple primal urge. Pathetic, if you think about it, but it had to be done._ ”

“But why did Newt let you in? Surely he felt your presence in the drift,” Hermann asked, glancing to his phone on the floor; Mako had picked up and was still on the line. Newt smiled, seemingly with more teeth than a human should have.

“ _Dr. Gottlieb, you’re operating on the assumption that he had a choice in the matter._ ”

As Newt - no, the Precursor inside Newt - smiled wickedly, Hermann brought his cane up squarely between his legs, silently apologizing to Newt. Even if this thing was alien, it was still in a human body, and while Hermann may not have been a biologist, he knew a square blow to the testicles couldn’t be ignored.

Newt yelped, sinking to the ground as he clutched his crotch. Hermann held his cane like a club, attempting to loom over the prone man in an intimidating manner.

“What exactly is it that you’ve made Newton do? I assume it has something to do with Shao Industries.”

“ _Shao was only a means to an end. We’ve set things in motion that no one can stop._ ” Despite his terror, Hermann couldn’t resist a quip.

“We seemed to do a pretty decent job of it the last time around.” Newt wheezed as he laughed, slowly picking himself up off the floor.

“ _I have to admit, you humans are certainly very good at being stupidly stubborn._ ” Hermann raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? You should know; you’re inside the mind of the stupidest and the stubbornest.” Newt laughed again as he began backing Hermann into the wall. Hermann tightened his grip on his cane, but his hands were shaking. Even though it was in Newt’s body, the thing’s presence was petrifying enough. Or perhaps it was made more petrifying by the fact that his closest friend was currently chuckling as he grabbed Hermann by the throat, lifting him against the wall.

“ _This has been entertaining, Dr. Gottlieb, but you know that we can’t allow you to leave this room. You only made it this far because of Newton trying to stop us. Do you know something? He loves you. It’s a thought that runs through his head every day; it’s quite annoying. Is that all you humans ever think about? Regardless, I want you to die knowing that he loved you, and I want him to watch._ ”

Hermann had been preparing another witty comeback, but all the air was quite inconveniently sucked from his lungs at the moment. Newt... loves me? More importantly, did he love Newt back? Apparently so; why else would he risk life and limb just to save him from the control of the Precursors? Any other PPDC official would have shot him then and there to prevent further catastrophe.

He cast his mind back to the picture he always kept on his desk. In the past ten years, his workspace had gotten messier and messier - something he attributed to the drift with Newt. But the picture was always given a prominent place; it depicted the two of them with arms around each other, Newt beaming at the camera while Hermann smiled quietly. Newt had insisted they take one after the war had been won.

“For the memories, y’know?” he had said. “I don’t know where the future will take us, but wherever I go... I don’t want to forget you.”

God, Hermann would have smacked himself if he wasn’t currently being choked. It had been so painfully obvious how Newt had felt, but he was too socially inept to realize it. He gasped as Newt’s grip tightened; the Precursor was seemingly annoyed that Hermann was taking so long to die.

“Newt? Even if what that thing just told me was a lie, I’m... I’m sorry. I let us drift apart because... I don’t know. I’m not good with other people. That was always your strong suit.” Newt frowned, letting Hermann slide down the wall a few centimeters. “And, for what it’s worth... I love you too.”

Hermann grunted as he was dropped suddenly, folding to the ground as his bad leg took the brunt of the impact. He looked up, massaging his throat, to find Newt staring at his hands, his gaze quivering and unfocused.

“Hermann, I’m trying to fight them but they’re way too strong,” he said quickly, his words tumbling over each other. “Even if I fight them back they’re still in my head and I don’t know how to get them out, I’m not strong enough, I can’t-”

“You can’t do it alone,” Hermann rasped, supporting himself with his cane as he rose to his feet. Newt’s arms were trembling, and Hermann put a hand on Newt’s forearm to steady him. “Remember? We’ve done this before. If we can share the neural load, maybe we can-”

“Herm they’ll get you too!” Newt cried, still speaking fast, his tone panicked. Hermann wracked his brains, trying to think of what Newt would do for him if their situations were reversed. He settled on a hug; that was what Newt would do.

“Newt, just... trust me. I know I’ve been a horrible friend these past ten years... and before then as well, I suppose, but...” he trailed off, not quite finding the right words. Newt nodded wordlessly, his face screwed up in intense concentration.

“They’re coming back. Headset.” Hermann sprung into action, grabbing the headsets from the floor.

“General Mori? Can I assume you’ve been listening this whole time?” Hermann called to the phone on the floor.

“I have PPDC agents on their way to your location now,” she responded.

“Excellent. Tell them to wait outside. If... if this doesn’t work, they can try it their way, I suppose.”

“Understood.” Mako paused, giving Hermann time to feel a pang of doubt. “ _Ganbarou_ , Dr. Gottlieb.”

“ _Arigato_ ,” he responded, placing the headset on Newt. “Just hold them back for a few moments longer so we can start the drift.” Newt nodded, his fists clenched tight. Hermann donned his own headset, checking that the two were properly linked. “Alright, here goes nothing. Initiating neural handshake in three, two, one-”

\---

The first thing Hermann felt when he entered the drift was searing cold all across his body. The whole world was Kaiju blue, pouring into his eyes until he was forced to shut them. Though he had only drifted once before, he knew it wasn’t supposed to be like this. Instead of the rapid flashes of memory, there was only silence and void.

He sensed Newt before he saw him, gasping aloud when he took in the man’s state. He was slumped over in a chair, the Precursor standing behind him with its claws wrapped around his neck. Blood was trickling out of several wounds, but it was bright Kaiju blue. Hermann crept forward, trying not to startle the thing. He doubted the element of surprise would be much help in this scenario.

He noticed as he inched closer that his cane was missing. Moreover, it seemed he didn’t need it inside the drift; his leg felt fine. Just as he began to revel in the sensation of two working legs, considering running towards the Precursor just because he could, the thing saw him. It hissed, but the sound was more mechanical than organic, like a pipe releasing steam.

_You are a fool for coming here,_ it said without moving its mouth. Or, at least, what Hermann assumed was its mouth. He stood his ground, feeling naked without his cane to lean on.

“Let Newt go,” he said in a quiet, steady voice. He knew asking politely wasn’t going to do anything, but he figured it was as good a place as any to start. The thing hissed again, but in short bursts, almost like it was laughing.

_Dr. Gottlieb, you’re incredibly intelligent among your race. Consider this; would Newton be able to survive without us anymore? The last ten years have taken quite a toll on his body. It would be like cutting the strings on a marionette._ Hermann tensed, eyes wide. Now there was a theory he hadn’t considered.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” he asked, not quite looking the Precursor in the eye. It made the same hissing-laughing sound.

_You don’t. And, after all, the only thing at stake is his life if you’re wrong,_ it said, squeezing Newt’s neck tighter. Newt cried out, fresh blood seeping from the cuts on his neck. Hermann flung out a hand.

“Stop!” he cried before he could stop himself. And, surprisingly enough, the thing did. It froze, then loosened its grip, looking confused. Hermann took another step forward, his hand still outstretched. “Step away from him.” The Precursor obeyed, seemingly struggling to control its legs. In the chair, Newt’s eyes were screwed shut, sweat rolling down his forehead. “Newt, can you hear me?” Newt nodded. “Keep fighting it. You’ve tried so hard, I know. Just... just a little more.”

_You have no idea what you’re doing, human,_ the Precursor barked, struggling to lunge forward at Hermann. Hermann gave it a sidelong glance, mustering up one of his best withering looks.

“Precursor, or whatever it is you call yourself, you’re the one that has no clue. This isn’t your world, and this isn’t your mind. It’s only because of me that this went on as long as it did. It’s my fault I didn’t figure this out sooner.” He took Newt’s hand, helping him out of the chair. “But I think it’s time for you to go.”

And just like that, with a hissing screech, the Precursor was gone. Hermann felt a chill as it passed; he knew that while the thing itself was gone, its effects would likely linger. Newt stumbled to his feet, clinging to Hermann.

“Is it gone?” he whispered, terrified. The sound sent shivers down Hermann’s spine and across his heart. He closed his eyes.

“Yes, Newt. It’s gone.” Newt closed his eyes as well, still leaning into Hermann.

“Thank God. Having a roommate was really starting to suck.” Hermann couldn’t even bring himself to sigh or roll his eyes. Instead, he pulled Newt into a tight hug, burying his nose in Newt’s hair.

“I’ve missed you, Newton.”


End file.
